Book of Genesis

Genesis means origin or generation. It is the first book of the Old Testament, written by Moses (before 4000 BC).

It tells of the creation, the fall, the flood the origins of the Hebrews and the early patriarchs with whom God made his Covenant.

Genesis falls in to three main parts: the primeval history of chapters, 1-11, the patriarchal stories of 12-36 and 38 and the stories of Joseph in 37 and 39-50.

The first part is the story of the human race as a whole from the beginnings to the rise of the nations. A genealogy from Noah to Abraham connects this part with history of the patriarch.

In chapters 12-25 it focuses on the life and descendents of Abraham, the primogenitor of both the Hebrew people, first called Jews while exile in Babylon in the fifth an sixth centuries BC and the Arab peoples.
Book of Genesis

Books of Chronicles

The book itself gives no definite information as to who the author might have been. Early Jewish tradition recorded in the Babylonian Talmud ascribed the authorship of Chronicles to Ezra and Nehemiah. Modern studies of the linguistic differences that exist between the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles have led some scholars to reject this ancient view.

The large number of sources mentioned should not be taken as indicating that the book is merely a stitch work. Though large portions of Kings are quoted almost verbatim there is clearly a skillful adaptation of this material into a thematic unity.

Chronicles contains the largest genealogical effort in biblical literature, a nine-chapter series of loosely relate segmented genealogies from Adam, to in some places, well after the fall of Jerusalem which occurred in 586 BC.

Chronicles is built from two kinds of texts: lists and narratives. Almost half of the book has a parallel text in the Torah, Former Prophets, Psalms, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah and occasionally, other biblical books. The rest consists of material unique to Chronicles that is with no parallels in any biblical or non biblical sources.
Books of Chronicles